IP Library Granted Patent US 12,067,994
Granted Patent B2
US 12,067,994 · App. 17/874,788 · Granted Aug 20, 2024

Tamper-robust watermarking of speech signals

Inventors: Friedrich Faubel (Ulm, DE); Jonas Jungclaussen (Ulm, DE); Marcus Groeber (Ulm, DE); Holger Quast (Ulm, DE); Oliver Van Porten (Ulm, DE); Markus Funk (Ulm, DE)
Assignee: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
G10L19/018G10L21/14
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,067,994
App. No.
17/874,788
Granted
Aug 20, 2024
Kind
B2
Abstract

A method for applying a watermark signal to a speech signal to prevent unauthorized use of speech signals, the method may include receiving an original speech signal; determining a corresponding spectrogram of the original speech signal; selecting a phase sequence of fixed frame length and uniform distribution; and generating an encoded watermark signal based on the corresponding spectrogram and phase sequence.

Claims (29)

1. A method for applying a watermark signal to a speech signal to prevent unauthorized use of speech signals, the method comprising:

receiving an original speech signal;

determining a corresponding spectrogram of the original speech signal;

selecting a phase sequence of fixed frame length and uniform distribution;

determining a frequency dependent gain factor based at least in part on a frequency of the original speech signal, wherein the frequency dependent gain factor is based on at least one frequency threshold, where a first gain factor is selected for frequencies below a first threshold frequency, and where a second gain factor is selected for frequencies above a second threshold frequency; and

generating an encoded watermark signal based on the corresponding spectrogram and phase sequence.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising taking the magnitude of the original speech spectrogram to generate the encoded watermark.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the spectrogram is determined by applying a short-time Fourier transform (STFT) to determine the sinusoidal frequency and phase content of each frame of the original input signal.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising applying bit encoding prior to generating the encoded watermark.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the bit encoding includes assigning bits based on information about the original speech signal.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the bit encoding is spread out through a subset of frequency bins to allow for detection of the bit encoding in adverse conditions.

7. The method of claim 1 , where a transition gain factor is selected for frequencies between the first threshold frequency and the second threshold frequency.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing the encoded watermark for authenticating a future speech signal, the encoded watermark defining permissions for use of the future speech signal.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising adding at least one of a pretty good privacy (PGP) or public key cryptography to the watermark signal.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the watermark signal includes words spoken in the original speech signal, wherein each word is associated with a sequence position.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the watermark signal includes a start and end time for each word as spoken in the original speech signal.

12. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions for applying a watermark signal to a speech signal to prevent unauthorized use of speech signals that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform operations comprising to:

receive an original speech signal;

determine a corresponding spectrogram of the original speech signal;

select a phase sequence of fixed frame length and uniform distribution;

generate an encoded watermark signal based on the corresponding spectrogram and phase sequence, wherein the watermark signal includes words spoken in the original speech signal, wherein each word is associated with a sequence position.

13. The computer program product of claim 12 , where the processor to perform operations further comprising to take the magnitude of the spectrogram to generate the encoded watermark.

14. The computer program product of claim 12 , wherein the spectrogram is determined by applying a short-time Fourier transform (STFT) to determine the sinusoidal frequency and phase content of each frame of the original input signal.

15. The computer program product of claim 12 , where the processor to perform operations further comprising to apply bit encoding prior to generating the encoded watermark.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 , wherein the bit encoding includes assigning bits based on information about the original speech signal.

17. A method for applying a watermark signal to an audio signal including speech content to prevent unauthorized use of the speech content, the method comprising:

receiving an original audio signal having speech content;

generating an encoded watermark signal based on the original speech signal and a frequency dependent gain factor based at least in part on a frequency of the original speech signal, wherein the frequency dependent gain factor is based on at least one frequency threshold, where a first gain factor is selected for frequencies below a first threshold frequency, and where a second gain factor is selected for frequencies above a second threshold frequency, the encoded watermark signal defining allowed usage of the original audio signal; and

transmitting an encoded audio signal including the original audio signal and watermark signal.

Assignments (3)
RELEASE (REEL 067417 / FRAME 0303) Recorded Jan 2, 2025
From: WELLS FARGO BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
To: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
Reel/Frame 069797/0422 →
SECURITY AGREEMENT Recorded Apr 15, 2024
From: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
To: WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT
Reel/Frame 067417/0303 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jul 27, 2022
From: FAUBEL, FRIEDRICH; JUNGCLAUSSEN, JONAS; GROEBER, MARCUS; QUAST, HOLGER; VAN PORTEN, OLIVER; FUNK, MARKUS
To: CERENCE OPERATING COMPANY
Reel/Frame 060643/0396 →
Continuity (1)
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